How Chasing Inspiration is Destroying Your Life
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
– Dale Carnegie
Maybe you could Google it. Maybe it’s just waiting around the corner to bump into you. Maybe its just eluding you on purpose, like that beautiful girl from a masquerade ball. Or maybe thats not the way to get inspiration. As a matter of fact, I’d say stop trying to search for inspiration.
I don’t mean forgo the concept of inspiration and motivation outright, no. Hear me out. Tobias Van Schneider, in an article on medium, quite rightly put it, “The problem with finding the perfect inspiration is that it’s just a romantic dream”. Yes, we all dream up this perfect scenario where inspiration is just supposed to fall onto our laps. We wait and wait and grow old waiting, expecting inspiration to be delivered like mail.
You won’t get inspired by sitting on your desk and praying for it to come to you. Flip through a book, take a stroll, meet someone, just do something, get working and you’ll get hit by bursts of sudden ideas and thoughts. And you’ll be wise enough to know that those are the subtle hints of inspiration that drives you forward.
THE PERFECTION — INSPIRATION PARADOX
Simply waiting for inspiration to shower on you is totally foolhardy. That being said, trying to seek out the perfect source of inspiration is also not recommended. Seeking perfection makes you take a longer time to get cracking with the stipulated task. As always “One in the hand is worth two in the bush”. You’d want to stop procrastinating and stupidly delaying things with the excuse for not being in the perfect mindset. Thats complete rubbish! If you have the pen in your hand, start scribbling, you’ll make progress, one word at a time.
Only in movies you see people waiting for the inevitable, the looming armageddon. We call it deadlines in real life. And yes, in this pursuit of perfection you’ll miss important tasks, get behind on your duty and falter in your quest. That is why instead of trying to grasp onto a sliver of perfection, dive into your work or your activity and don’t look back.
In an article on medium, Thomas Oppong wrote, “Whether the outcome is magnificent or eternal, whether it changes people’s lives, changes the world, changes you or groundbreaking, it matters that you show up. If you pursue your dreams long long enough, compounding takes effect. Momentum will surge”
Small things surround us, a conglomerate of which define our lives and shape our futures. Forcing inspiration to enlighten you is idiotic. You can’t control how inspiration works, but you can put yourself in the best situation to receive inspiration. Remember, inspiration, not surprisingly, is like luck.
“Inspiration is one thing and you can’t control it, but hard work is what keeps the ship moving. Good luck means, work hard. Keep up the good work.” – Kevin Eubanks
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
In today’s world we all believe in a system and allow that to govern our lives. Eat-sleep-work-repeat, that’s the cul-de-sac of our lives. And since we’ve become insanely mechanical we fail to comprehend this endless cycle of monotony. And many at time we feel we should venture out beyond our comfort zone, but then we arm ourselves with this overhyped attention to detail. This unnecessary perk, if you could call it that, hinders progress. Instead learn to take appropriate precautions to get things right rather than getting them to be perfect; perfection is just an illusion.
Change is always hard. But if you can push yourself beyond the regular and try to indulge yourself in something new, you grow, you learn and you’ll never look back. Risks are necessary. Your mind is always going to try and urge you to play it safe, don’t listen to it. Don’t overthink or over-plan, you’ll end up under-acting, and that is the root of all inactivity.
“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.”
– Peter Marshall
GET CREATIVE — GET INSPIRED
Inspiration is all around us, but it’s hidden from plain sight. Only when your mind is all set to working sincerely and performing honestly, do you get glimpses of inspiration. It will come to you only if you are in a state of motion, doing something productive, something worth quadruple the time you spent in doing it. Remember until you stop procrastinating and start working immediately, inspiration is simply going to elude you. Dare to be a trailblazer, accept criticism but don’t brood over it.
Inspiration comes from you being creative, and you get creativity from trying something new each day. Exercise your mind, exercise your thoughts, do not daydream but rather work towards making dreams your reality. Chasing your dreams will put in the spot at times, failures will be there, but dust yourself up and keep going, you are your only true source of motivation. You alone can either make the best decisions or sulk at home complaining about things that didn’t go right or according to plan. It’s your life, make it large. It’s your choices, make them meaningful.
“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” — Cadet maxim
Originally published at chevaun.com.
